In the field of networking, a primary goal of admission control is to admit the maximum amount of data possible. For real-time services that do not have stringent requirements for loss rates or delay times, such as multimedia streaming and interactive gaming, Measurement-Based Admission Control (MBAC), which bases admission decisions on the measurement of the dynamic traffic load of the network, has been recognized as an appropriate and efficient admission control mechanism. Several proposed MBAC algorithms measure the available bandwidth of a network in making an admission decision.
Recently, a technique known as endpoint admission control has been proposed. According to the technique, a gateway responds to a request for admission to a network by first probing the network with test packets and listening for responses to the packets. The gateway then determines, based on the responses, the packet loss rate of the network. If the packet loss rate is above an acceptable level, then the request is denied.